Hey all,

Prepping for my first trip without a guide for this sept. I'm with a group of moderate experience wanderers. Any tips or suggestions on routes? We have an equal interest in fishing (walleye particularly) and seeing the sights (waterfalls particularly). We'll be on the water for a week. Ideally we'll find a route that keeps from having to pay for Canadian fishing licenses and entry fees.

Any advice appreciated!

You'll need to share more info re: your plans to get helpful advice. How far do you want to move per day? Do you plan to basecamp or travel each day?

To see sites you need to move. If you can, get a tow up to the border. You can then easily not only get to knife lake but south arm of it. Eddy falls is something to see there. Be careful about fishing on the border itself. Know where you are... Ignorance only gets you in trouble. Fishing without an Ontario license has to be done on the Minnesota side. Knife lake is a cool lake in itself. Thunder point has a trail you can climb to a nice Vista. Maybe camp mid lake and day trip and fish to Eddy falls and such. You can portage down through Bonnie and pick a couple different options to get out. But very important to be realistic to how far your group can move each day. If your late risers you'll have a tougher time getting to far. Paddle too late in the day campsites can be hard to come by in these busier areas. When you say a week, are you saying five days or seven of paddling. Look for moving water possibilities to fish for walleye. Where streams and rivers enter the lakes is where I've had the best luck. Also you can eyeball between a couple points where there might be structure to fish. Like said, a little more info is needed to give much more than that. Don't bite off too much if your unsure of distances. Or at least give yourself options to cut it shorter if your group doesn't move too fast. Get to a campsite early? You can fish and explore... Get to campsites too late your scrambling to set up camp and do dinner and such. Make it enjoyable... Fewer people puts more work on each person. Too many people create work for those that seem to do everything. Six people is plenty, nine can be a nonending business where you may just want to quit and go home. Four is a great number... Rarely would you feel crowded on most campsites and you'd still get to enjoy some peace and quiet... Maybe. More people give opportunity to put more heads together for ideas to get through a situation. It also has the bigger opportunity for disagreement. Pick your trip mates carefully... Find that core group that can lead. And have fun...